Shifting allegiances: Amir Muqam formally joins PML-Nawaz

Three sitting MPAs, around 90% of the PML-Q council members also switch sides.

PESHAWAR:

After much clamour on both sides, Amir Muqam, the former chief of the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) chapter, formally joined Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) on Friday.

Along with Muqam, three sitting members of the K-P Assembly, a former federal minister, six former provincial ministers, two former members of the National Assembly (MNAs), a large number of former MPAs, party office-bearers and the majority of members from PML-Q’s 450-strong general council also bid the party adieu.

Reading a long list of the party members who chose to switch sides to PML-N with him, Muqam named the three sitting provincial assembly members as Fazlullah, Rashad Khan from Shangla and Sanaullah Miankhel from Dera Ismail Khan. The former PML-Q provincial chief, who is also a sitting MNA, also announced his resignation from his National Assembly seat on the occasion.

In his speech, Muqam claimed he was interested in politics of a different nature; while other politicians want to join the government and get ministries, he chose to leave the government and sit in the opposition.

Elaborating his reasons for joining PML-N, he said he considered Nawaz Sharif the most suitable leader to steer the country out of crises under the present situation. Not shying away from confronting past associations, he said “I was with Musharraf, the Chaudhries and the Muttahida Majlis Amal (MMA), but I have always quit on principles.”

Muqam claimed the Chaudhries’ decision to ally with President Asif Ali Zardari had forced him to part ways with the party. “Allying with the government negates PML’s ideology,” he said. He added that around 90 per cent of the PML-Q K-P chapter was merging with the PML-N.

Nawaz Sharif on PCNS proceedings

Also present on the occasion, Nawaz Sharif used the opportunity to address a number of concerns, especially with regard to the policy review on US ties. Clarifying his party’s stance over the ongoing deliberations of the Parliamentary Committee on National Security (PCNS), he said drone attacks on Pakistani soil need to be ceased before any ties were reconsidered.

“If NATO supplies are to be resumed, then the US should be told that there will be no more drone attacks in Pakistan and the supplies will only contain rations.” Nawaz added that the government should also disallow the presence of any foreign intelligence operatives and security contractors in Pakistan and not provide airbases to any foreign country.

The PML-N chief also criticised the government over its handling of the US announcement of bounty for Jamat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed. Nawaz maintained Saeed was neither a fugitive nor were there any cases registered against him. He termed the decision a vote of no confidence in the Pakistani government since the US did not even bother to consult it.

Nawaz’s brief interaction with the media was marred, however, by a scuffle that emerged between them and security personnel. Journalists claimed they were manhandled by security and threatened to stage a walkout to protest the incident. The PML-N chief spent a good 10 minutes trying to pacify the irate journalists and senior party leader Sardar Mehtab Ahmed Khan also apologised over the security personnel’s conduct.


Published in The Express Tribune, April 7^th, 2012.